Tribune: Carlos Bocanegra Feature

Halfway through the article, I sorta guessed it was Bonnie DeSimone. I wish she covered the Fire more often.

And the contract/England thing has come up before, so I wasn't surprised by that. In the back of my mind, I've been thinking we won't finish the 2003 season with Boca or DMB.

Later,
COZ

 

I agree with COZ and think he is ready to step up to Euro competition. I hope he doesn't get Donovanitis and not leave for better competition.

But the Fire will be ok if he does leave. We could slot Pause, Gray, Whitfield, or someone else to cover the spot. Not necessarily the talent (we could only hope), but the position.

 

Don't know about Pause or Whitfield as a left-sided defender. Perez is more likely. Gray is definitely a possibility, and maybe Nick Walls?

Later,
COZ

 

There is a problem with Carlos' English dream.

Unless a player can prove "citizenship" from a European Union country, a player must have played in 75% of his country's National team matches over the last two year's in order to qualify for a work permit in the UK. (The National team also has to be ranked in the top 75 in the world for the player to be eligible to play in the UK, also.)

EU "Citizenship" is a pretty loose term. Basically, all a player needs is to be able to obtain a passport from an EU country. The rules vary country to country, but often allow a person with a grand parent who is a citizen of a country to obtain a passport. I believe several US players including Claudio Reyna have used this route into the UK.

Unless Carlos can find a way to get an EU passport, it'll probably be sometime next year before he can get in enough Nats team matches to qualify for a work permit.

The only other option, of course, is to marry a woman from an EU country and obtain a passport. I believe Jovan Kirovski got into England that way.

 

There have been a few notable exceptions taken to this rule.

Namely, Brad Friedel and Jovan Kirovski.

 

I would like to see Carlos take a detour through the Netherlands first. Wouldn't it be neat having two Yanks on Ajax's defense? And he would much more easily get a work permit.

 

Brad was initially turned down because he hadn't played in 75% of the Nats team games. Liverpool had to take the work permit application to appeal. in the interim, he had played some additional Nats team games. He was close to 75% by that time and some consideration was given that GK's have more difficulty getting in 75% of the games. So he eventually was given a work permit and allowed to join Liverpool.

Jovan Kirovski signed with Man U as a youth player. He was then to be signed with the senior Man U side as a pro player. THE WORK PERMIT WAS DENIED. He didn't have any Nats games. So. Jovan went off to play in Germany. After Germany, he went to Portugal to play. Jovan was only able to return to England because in the interim he had married a woman who held an EU country passport. He obtained an EU passport through her. So, he was eligible to play in England and joined Crystal Palace and then Birmingham. If not for his wife, he still wouldn't be able to play there.

Right now, Carlos has 11 caps. The US has played 33 games since June 7, 2001 ( 9 in 2001, 20 in 2002, 4 so far this year). 75% is about 24 caps. Carlos isn't likely to be eligible to go to England til after the end of the MLS season this year. By that time, he should be around 20+ caps. At that time, the British authorities may take into consideration that he's a Nats team starter and close to the 75% requirement and let him have the permit.

The good news for his English dream is that being a Nats team starter, he won't be dinged if he misses any Nats games due to injury. He could get a letter from BA stating that he would have played if fit. Then, on appeal, the British authorities would take them into consideration as played in meeting the requirements for the permit.

(If, say, Chris Armas decided he wanted to play in England, he would have no problem obtaining a work permit because of this provision. He's started every Nats team game that he's be physically able to play before his serious injury. He's now returned to being a Nats team starter after recovery from the knee injury. So with a letter from BA, all the games he missed would be able to be counted and he'd easily qualify for a work permit.)

BTW, the Fire player much closer to being eligible to go to England is DaMarcus Beasley. He's got 19 caps. By the end of the Gold Cup and Confederations Cup in July, he should be at 75% of the Nats team. He'd be the player much more likely to leave for England before the end of the season on an eligibilty basis.

 

Actually, I think going to Netherlands (or anywhere else) first would probably hurt his chances of making it to England.

The Euro based players don't get called near as much for a number of reason -- so it would take longer for him to get to 75% because he wouldn't be playing in all the friendlies over here.

Other than the fact that if he's over there, he'd be more likely to hook up with a Euro wife like Jovan did.

He was stellar last night. I'd REALLY like to see him playing in the EPL and have his game progress like John O'shea's has.

 

Over the the EPL forum, we've discussed players who might make or want to make the move. Bocanegra's name came up and we discussed the work permit issue. Check here https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=1063740#post1063740

Basically, there's a couple things wrong with RogerinIL's calcs. First of all, it only counts "competitive" games, not friendlies. So Carlos only has 5 caps toward a work permit, not 11 (12 after last night). However, there have only been 10 competitive games in that timeframe -- the 5 gold cup games Carlos was in and the 5 WC games.

If Carlos plays in all Confed Cup games in June and all Gold Cup games in August and if we get 5 games out of each of those tournaments, then Carlos will have his 75%. Even if we only get the minimum of 3 games each event, Carlos will have 69%.

Given that it was widely speculated that Carlos would have been on the WC roster had he not been injured, getting The Bruce to say that he'd have gotten at least 1 cap in the world cup would tip the scales for him.